Unfaithful Israel

¹If a man divorces his wife,

and she goes from him and becomes another man’s,

shall he return to her again?

Shall not that land be greatly polluted?

But you have played the harlot with many lovers;

yet return again to Me,

says the Lord .

²Lift up your eyes to the high places,

and see! Where have you not been ravished?

In the roads you have sat for them

as the Arabian in the wilderness.

And you have polluted the land

with your harlotry and with your wickedness.

³Therefore the showers have been withheld,

and there has been no latter rain.

And you had a harlot’s forehead;

you refused to be ashamed.

⁴Shall you not from this time cry to Me,

“My Father, You are the guide of my youth?

⁵Shall He reserve His anger forever?[#Isa 57:16; Jer 3:12]

Shall He keep it to the end?”

Behold, you have spoken,

but you have done all the evil things that you could.

A Call to Repentance

⁶The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot.

⁷I said after she had done all these things, “Turn to Me.” But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.[#Eze 16:46]

⁸I saw that for all the adulteries of backsliding Israel, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.[#Dt 24:1; Isa 50:1]

⁹Through the lightness of her harlotry she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and with trees.[#Isa 57:6; Jer 2:27]

¹⁰Yet for all this, her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but feignedly, says the Lord .[#Hos 7:14]

God Invites Repentance

¹¹The Lord said to me: Backsliding Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.[#Eze 16:51–52; 23:11]

¹²Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say:

Return, backsliding Israel, says the Lord ,

and I will not cause My anger to fall on you.

For I am merciful, says the Lord ,

and I will not keep anger forever.

¹³Only acknowledge your iniquity,[#Dt 30:1–3]

that you have transgressed against the Lord your God

and have scattered your ways to the strangers

under every green tree,

and you have not obeyed My voice,

says the Lord .

¹⁴Return, O backsliding sons, says the Lord , for I am married to you. And I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.[#Isa 54:5; Jer 31:32]

¹⁵And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.[#Jer 23:4; Ac 20:28]

¹⁶It shall come to pass when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days, says the Lord , they will say no more, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord .” And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they call for it, nor will it be made any more.[#Isa 65:17]

¹⁷At that time they will call Jerusalem, the Throne of the Lord , and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord ; nor will they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil hearts.[#Jer 17:12; #Jer 11:8]

¹⁸In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given to your fathers for an inheritance.[#Jer 50:4; #Jer 31:8]

¹⁹But I said:

How can I put you among My sons

and give you a pleasant land,

the most beautiful inheritance of the nations?

And I said: You shall call Me, My Father,

and shall not turn away from Me.

²⁰Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband,

so you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,

says the Lord .

²¹A voice was heard upon the high places,[#Isa 15:2]

the weeping and the supplications of the Israelites,

because they have perverted their way,

they have forgotten the Lord their God.

²²Return, O backsliding sons,

and I will heal your backslidings.

“Behold, we come to You,

for You are the Lord our God.

²³Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills,[#Ps 121:1–2]

and from the multitude of mountains.

Truly, in the Lord our God

is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴For shame has devoured the labor

of our fathers from our youth,

their flocks and their herds,

their sons and their daughters.

²⁵We lie down in our shame,

and our humiliation covers us.

For we have sinned against the Lord our God,

we and our fathers,

from our youth even to this day,

and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”